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On Devstream #123, we declared that the Alert system as we know it now will soon retire. For those of you who have been with us since 2013, there have been almost 6 years of Alerts in your World State Window. An ever-growing reward list of Warframe Helmets, Weapon Blueprints, resources, and more, and an endless scrolling of @WarframeAlerts’ timeline. It has long been one of the Warframe’s quintessential daily “check in” activities, and one that is familiar to new and veteran players. Here in this (lengthy - TL;DR provided at the bottom!) post we will break down why we are getting rid of Alerts and what we are replacing them with!

We are replacing randomly generated Alerts with a new lore-driven system called 'Nightwave'. The Wolf of Saturn Six broadcasts will soon be heard…

Let’s break down the removal of Alerts by looking at the current system and what will be changing with Nightwave:

CURRENT ALERT SYSTEM

Open the World State Window to the Alerts tab and select from the list of time limited missions on unlocked nodes. Start these missions within the allotted time and successfully complete them to earn the advertised reward and Credits. Rinse repeat!

What the current system offers now:

A quick and easy way to discover and complete unlocked nodes in the Solar Map, earn Credits, Weapon Blueprints, Mods, and more to build up your inventory (primarily new player driven).

A quick and easy way to play Warframe. Hop in and out of missions when you are short on time (anyone).

Reliability: Missing a time limited mission with an Alert-only reward means waiting for it to rotate back into the live Alerts, at which time you may not be available (work, school, walking the dog, sleep, you know, the important stuff!).

Creates roadblocks to earning some of the essentials for new players (ex: Aura Mods), and general required crafting resources (ex: Nitain).

This has also created dependencies on the Warframe Alerts Twitter accounts and other third party apps that track Alert status that pulls you out of the game.

Challenge/Variety: For players with resource, weapon, and Credit abundances, etc. the Alerts tend to fall in the “if needed” category and are mostly overshadowed by Sorties as they offer more level appropriate missions and rewards. Alert difficulty levels are also random, so while active Alerts may offer needed rewards, the mission required to earning them may not be of interest.

Fun-Factor/Narrative: "Tenno, there is a time-limited mission Alert available. Check navigation." said the Lotus.

NIGHTWAVE

Nightwave will be airing soon.

What is it?

Nightwave is a pirate radio series brought to you by the rogue Nora Night. The Wolf of Saturn Six is the first Nightwave, our replacement to the current alert system where daily/weekly challenges are offered over the course of multiple weeks and will center around new characters and Episodes. Completing challenges will earn you Nightwave Standing and ranking up will reward you with a special kind of currency that expires after the Series has completed. For The Wolf of Saturn Six we are calling this special currency “WOLF CREDS”, which you can earn and spend!

This may sound familiar to Syndicates in some ways, but not in others. Unlike existing Syndicates, you do not use the Standing earned to purchase offerings. Standing for Nightwave is unique in that it is used solely for rising up the ranks. So for Wolf of Saturn Six, each rank reached unlocks a special reward specific to Wolf of Saturn Six (primarily cosmetic and others!). You will also be granted Wolf Creds that you can spend in a specialty Cred Offerings shop!

So, how does Nightwave fill what the current Alert system lacks?

Reliability + Clutter:

We want to eradicate the “snooze (literally) you lose” system we have now and give the freedom to choose the rewards you want/need from the current Alert system (and more down the road!) in a more reliable and predictable format. No more Twitter feeds, no more “wrong time wrong place” - it will all be housed under the Nightwave roof.

We are doing this in 2 ways:

1- Moving the Alert reward items into the Cred Offerings. What you see will be what you can get, and what you get will be available for a longer period of time, not just a blip - there is no rug pulling from under your feet, the Cred Offerings are visible at any time from the Nightwave window for that duration.

Over the course of the Nightwave, the rewards from the four categories you see in the list below will rotate (Aura Mods, Helmets, Weapon Skins, and Weapon Blueprints) with evergreen rewards available permanently throughout. There will be no limit to how many times you can purchase an item, unless of course you run out of Wolf Creds.

Note: You’ll see a large inventory of Warframe Helmets in the Cred Offerings as they are the biggest category out of the four!

*Image above displays just some of the rewards in a rotation as an example and is not limited to this number of rewards! You can see exactly when the current offerings will leave with the 'New Offerings' timer at the bottom.

Current Alert-specific Rewards that are moving into the Nightwave Offerings rotation:

Evergreen Rewards:

Orokin Catalyst Blueprint

Orokin Reactor Blueprint

Nitain Extract

Except that the offering will be a bundle of 5!

Vauban Component Blueprints

Aura Mods:

Corrosive Projection

Dead Eye

Enemy Radar

Energy Siphon

EMP Aura

Infested Impedance

Loot Detector

Pistol Scavenger

Physique

Rejuvenation

Rifle Scavenger

Rifle Amp

Shield Disruption

Shotgun Scavenger

Sniper Scavenger

Speed Holster

Sprint Boost

Steel Charge

Warframe Alt Helmets Blueprints

Weapon Skins:

Scindo Dagger-Axe Skin Blueprint

Dual Zoren Dagger-Axe Skin Blueprint

Fragor Brokk Skin Blueprint

Scindo Manticore Skin Blueprint

Weapon Blueprints:

Ceramic Dagger Blueprint

Dark Dagger Blueprint

Dark Sword Blueprint

Glaive Blueprint

Heat Dagger Blueprint

Heat Sword Blueprint

Jaw Sword Blueprint

Pangolin Sword Blueprint

Plasma Sword Blueprint

Alert Rewards that are not moving into the Nightwave Cred Offerings:

All of the below rewards were added to Alerts retroactively to try and make up for Alerts being a bit 'missable'. None of these items originally launched in Alerts.

Forma Blueprint

We are swapping out the Blueprint reward from the current Alert system to a bundle of built Forma that will be part of the Reward Tiers list in Nightwave.

Kubrow Egg

Kubrow Eggs were added to the Alert system in Update 15. With the the overall drop rate increase of Eggs in Update 18.8 and the removal of pickup limit on Kubrow Eggs in Update 23.10, Kubrow Eggs aren’t as hard to earn as they once were before they were added to the Alerts.

5x Kavat Genetic Codes

Since we are removing the Genetic Codes from the Alerts, we will be increasing the chance of earning 1x Code per scan from 15% to 25% and Resource boosters will apply to scans!

20x Void Traces

Traces can easily be earned while playing Fissure missions!

100-150x Endo

Endo can easily be earned elsewhere!

Resource Rewards

Resources can easily/passively be earned in mission!

Nightmare Mode Mods

Will still be able to be earned by playing Nightmare Mode missions!

5x Synthula

Synthula was introduced with The Pacifism Defect and was added to Alerts as a means of acquiring the Stim technology outside of Clan research. Since the demand for the item post-Event has decreased (as it is used to buff NPCs), we have simply left it as Clan research.

2- Diversifying the acquisition of core Warframe goods through Tier Rewards. More ways for you to get the things you want/need which includes debuting purchase-only items like Inventory Slots and some cosmetics into earnables.

Additionally, Tier Rewards will include items new to Warframe (some familiar some not!) pertaining to Nightwave and The Wolf of Saturn Six. The goal: Focus on story-driven aspects of Nightwave and explore what could be offered gameplay-wise without relying on Mastery Rank.

We’re excited about the prospects of what Nightwaves will offer reward-wise compared to Alerts, but with large systematic changes comes many adjustment periods. With Nightwaves we have more flexibility to explore desirable reward options, and in doing so, we’ll definitely be shifting things around, adding and removing, and ultimately learning as we go. A new system means new challenges, and as always, your feedback is crucial to the process!

Challenge/Variety + Fun-Factor/Narrative:

You can expect “Elite Weekly” challenges for those looking to earn more faster. The challenges can range from completing certain mission types to performing certain actions/tasks and everything in between. You can also expect rich stories told by Nora Night - which we won't be spoiling in this rather matter-of-fact Dev Workshop.

Additional notes:

We are removing the time-limited Alerts from the World State Window, but the remaining will still be available from that tab:

Arbitrations

Void Trader location/countdown

Weekly Alerts:

Maroo’s Bazaar - Ayatan Treasure Hunt

Larunda Relay - Help Clem

Tactical Alerts

Devstream Gift of the Lotus Alerts

New Warframe Alt Helmets will be added into their category rotation in the Cred Offerings shop.

New items may be added to the Cred Offerings rotation with the emergence of new Nightwaves. For Wolf of Saturn Six you will be seeing new Desert-Camo Skin Blueprints in the rotation!

A whole 6 years of memories with the Alert system, big changes and even bigger levels of excitement. We can’t wait for you to dive into The Wolf of Saturn Six!

TL;DR - We are removing Alerts and replacing them with an Episodic/Program called Nightwave! Here’s a breakdown of the above 6 pages:

Nightwave: A pirate radio series brought to you by the rogue Nora Night. Unlike Alerts, there is variety in challenge, lore, and less luck involved with what is available in terms of rewards.

The Wolf of Saturn Six: The first Nightwave!

Nightwave Rewards: The current Alert rewards will be moved into a “Cred Offerings” store, where they can be purchased with currency earned from ranking up with Nightwave. Reward tiers will also be available, debuting with some purchase-only items like Inventory Slots and some cosmetics into earnables (along with some items new to Warframe!)

New System, new challenges! With Nightwaves we have more flexibility to explore desirable reward options, and in doing so we’ll definitely be shifting things around, adding and removing, and ultimately learning as we go.

A full detailed write up on how to participate in Nightwave: The Wolf of Saturn Six will be available upon launch.

And as is commonplace with workshops, there are bound to be changes between this posting and launch!

What is the difference between Nightwave Standing and Tier rewards?
Nightwave may sound familiar to Syndicates in some ways, but not in others. Unlike existing Syndicates, you do not use the Standing earned to purchase offerings. Standing for Nightwave is unique in that it is used solely for rising up the ranks. So for Wolf of Saturn Six, each rank reached unlocks a special reward specific to Wolf of Saturn Six (primarily cosmetic and others!). You will also be granted Wolf Creds that you can spend in a specialty Cred Offerings shop!

What happens to Wolf Creds after the Nightwave Series completes? This was answered on today's impromptu Devstream with Rebecca and Steve:

What does the countdown timer in that screenshot indicate?
Saw some confusion on this! To clarify, Creds do not expire at the end of this particular timer. That timer simply indicates the length of that particular reward rotation within the Nightwave Series. In other words, Creds only expire after the whole Series has come to a complete close.

So for the duration of the first Nightwave Series (The Wolf of Saturn Six), you will use "Wolf Creds" you earn to purchase from the Cred Offerings store. When The Wolf of Saturn Six comes to a full conclusion, they will expire.

Are Nightwaves Mastery Rank locked?
Nope! No restrictions to participating asides from having completed Vor's Prize of course.

hmm i came back befor u added all quest in i done it long ago but for me it show as lock like i never did it will it effect me in any way?

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though, collecting Traces is still a completely miserable thing to do. why isn't there a way to get Traces that is something OTHER than Void Tears? why don't we get some for playing Onslaught, and maybe some other places.

we get say, Fusion Energy in just about every Mission. why not... Traces?
going AFK for hours in boring Solar Map Missions AND then having to wait for timers for more hours in Void Tears is so incredibly boring. it's not even fun to do this stuff for hours on end, let alone the amount of time it actually takes to do it.

I agree with this when doing fissure misions you get between 6 and 40 void traces which is bad DE NEED to add void traces as rewards, it would be a huge benefit for me personaly. Void traces was a reward on POE missions but got taken out which is a damn shame. In the new game-modes you create, add void traces as a reward of at lease 50 or 100 that make sence.

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The current missability of Alert rewards, particularly Nitain, is absolutely a huge frustration and I welcome the move away.

With that said, I'm concerned that this promotes burnout. The current alert system offers the following:

(Virtually) guaranteed grouping. I don't think I've ever done an alert, even for only Credits, and not had at least one other person not matched in before I left the spawn room. But for Faction dailies etc, doing them at an off-peak time has often left me running solo.

Monotony breaks. Seeing a random Kubrow egg or whatever come up will often get me to switch tasks, and alleviate the boredom of grinding through dailies.

Bite-sized gameplay. Related to the above, there's a ton of grind in Warframe. Alerts, by their nature, cannot be effectively 'ground,' and so help mitigate burnout.

The new system furthers a "thanksgiving" style gameplay -- an eat-till-you're-sick buffet. My hope is for you to counterbalance this somehow, and not dive to deeply into the daily chore cycle in an attempt to solve other problems.

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ok idk if someone reads this or not but me and my buddies were discussing about the nightwave update.

since in the last prime time reb said that night wave gonna be a pirate-esqe radio for alerts i have a suggestion to make which the community might like too 🙂

since its supposed to be a radio how about we actually get a radio as for in game too(not the scanner) like an actual radio which might use custom soundtracks of freeware audios out there. i believe vaporwave would be a perfect genre for warframe if this gets implemented.
im just attaching some clips for a clear view on what can be added for the music

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New player here, so apologies if I don't get everything right. I often avoid as much game input as I can to avoid spoilers. Here's my thoughts on the topic.

While I agree on many points of the "what the system lacks", I'd like to add a few things. This isn't meant as critique.
Just what's going through my noob head. And no, I didn't read the entire thread with all the posts made.

Current alert system:

So far it has given me the impression, that there's always something to do. It gave me some sort of direction. They make the game feel lively even if you are just alone in your ship for a while. It had a very interactive touch.

I liked seeing the rewards in advance. I'm no fan of RNG.

If I see a NM alert with a gold mod I'm after, I jump in and go public for that specific reward. I wouldn't do that for merely a chance of a possible reward from a loot table. Usually I play solo or with friends. On a sidenote I am mighty thankful for not being forced to break with that habit if I want to advance or experience the story.

The alert app let me carry a part of the game into RL. I like things like that. Sort of staying connected without being ingame. Pocket version of "the system needs you" ^^
May I suggest that we get an app with Nightwave News by Nora Night? Or an Ordis to go?

Especially if you start out, the Oxium, Plastids, Nano Spores, Kavat Codes and Tellurium resource alarms gave me access to things I had yet to unlock/stockpile. I was -and for the most parts still am- genuinely happy to see those alerts popping up.

I don't have to farm/gather anything if I see an alert. I'll just have to put in some work and motivation. A very spontaneous system with almost no pre-requisites neded.

The feeling when you are short of ONE specific resource to finish the blueprint you are really hyped for and then an alarm pops up with exactly the thing you need... Pure bliss

New alerts system:

While I am in favour of the removal of narrow time windows and missing out on stuff, because I have to sleep once in a while, I wonder if Nightwave might come out as "just" another station I go to once in a blue moon (like my syndicates), that I passively farm, check, drop medallions at and ignore if I don't feel like it. Sure, I want the good mods, but they seem so very far away, that I take it fairly easy, seeing that so many interesting blueprints also cost a bunch of credits, so I idle around in my current rank.
Seeing that I have to put in x amounts of work to unlock a thing that I really want demotivates me.

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem to work for what I really want. I'd have a problem if I am standing-gated, maximum farm per day gated and all the really good stuff that I'm after will only be available after x amount of days. So I just hope that I won't trade being node-locked for being standing-locked. If I am willing and able to spend time for raking up standing, there shouldn't be an artificial limit. That'd be my wish for Nightwave.

In addition, instead of letting the Wolf Creds go POOF, maybe offer a trade-in for normal credits. Tenno worked for them after all.
I am also wondering, what will happen to the items like mods, cosmetics and blueprints if I miss a rotation? Bad luck and no chance of getting them anymore? I don't think you'd do that, since that'd even be more punishing than snooze-failing an alert, but it still crossed my mind.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All in all I'm pretty thrilled and curious about the implementations to come and I want to point out, that things I didn't mention aren't a sign of my dislikes or something of the sort. I gotta draw the line somewhere and I really am not the type to think of all new things or changes as bad.
Anyway, so far I got the impression that the people working on Warframe love what they are doing even after all these years. They are not aiming to make things more hip n fancy or more profitable, but intent to make it more rewarding, immersive and fun. So thank you all for your hard work! Hope there'll be more years to celebrate in the future 🙂
I enjoy being a Tenno. Creating an enjoyable f2p game instead of something "still acceptable" seems to be rare and difficult these days. That's why I wanted to mention it.

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Very cool system, wish you guys could do the same with Arbitratrions, the rewards on the Hexis vendor atm sucks. Would be cool to have better rewards and stuff to purchase with vitus essence like other mods and cosmetics.

Edited February 26 by llls1cKb0ylll

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Will the requirements for ranking up be consistent? Like for an arbitrary number example will it be 10,000 nightwave points you rank up or will it be more like every 10,000 + (1,000 times x) or 10,000 + (1,000 times xnth).

If the requirements go up in a continuing-to-increase manner will there be a plateau where you earn evergreen rank ups? Following the earlier example if it started at 10,000 would it cap out at something like 130,000 for evergreen rewards?

Also I'm sort of assuming you earn nightwave rank ups until the cycle of that nightwave concludes. Would the rankings instead be daily or weekly?

Regardless of the answer I am really, REALLY looking forward to nightwave's release. It seems really well thought out and I can't wait to get my hands on it.

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Do not like the sound of my "wolf credits" only lasting so long and the rewards coming and going once more which is what you said you wanted to avoid, Seasons, lol. Why do I get the feeling this is going to be even more grindy than the current system? Why not instead make it so all standing is just to unlock the different tier items with each faction and we can use normal credits that don't expire to purchase items from each vendor instead which would actually make the game a lot more fun for the majority of players(yes some merchants wont be happy) instead of what is no doubt crap designed to get us to spend money on plat. Oh Btw how about fixing the Profit taker Phase 1 Stage 2 before implementing more... Could you also please consider changing rivens, yes once again it will upset the traders but think I've aquired 11 in my 4/500 hours of game play and not one for a weapon I enjoy using, let us have the riven for the weapon we unlock it with instead of trying to get us to use weapons we have no interest in and gt no pleasure from using just because you would like to see some diversity. Its a crap system and the prices people expect for popular weapons is insane! 4k average price for a rubico riven and thats not even a good one!

Edited February 27 by TheSkunkyMonk

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Basically what I am trying to say is go back to being an old school game dev and design your games for fun instead of for profit. You are already raking in plenty as it is and I bet if you did you would make a lot more in the long run instead of upsetting players and making them wonder why they are still playing.

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1. Being a "Season" Alerts, I'd like to have as much wolf creds as I can to be honest

2. Wolf Cred tied to Ranking up, We Will have to see if the Ranking up is like 10K Standing for each level or 10k Standing for this level and 11k Standing for next level

3. Removal of Nightmare mods, Personally, I hated farming for Blaze, Nightmare alerts is where I got my Blaze, so I'd like to keep it in

4. Kavat Genetic Codes, Even if the Kavat Gene Codes is affected by booster and increased the chance of getting them, 5x Kavat Genetic codes is quite alot of codes

Thats all really, But I really don't like the Removal Of Nightmare Mods. Some mods have very low drop chance and the table is convoluted of what can be dropped. So having a guaranteed drop is really really helpful

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Btw do we have a release date as I don't want to buy anymore slots if this is coming in the next week or so and for all the people who have spent thousands on potatoes and slots already will we be getting anything back? I know I have only been playing for a couple months but I have already sunk other 1000 plat into slots and potatoes easy, Same argument the Riven folk have for us not going to a unlock for the weapon used system funnily enough 😛

And Compen, please can you sort all of us out who have been struggling with the profit taker mission that still hasnt been fixed, wasted so much of my patience, time, boosters and rage quits thats should of been spent progressing through the ranks with Vox Solaris...

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1. Why do you need to remove the current alert system as well?
~ It would seem that keeping the current alert system (even if toning back the frequency of the alerts) would leave players with more options (better for players) when you add The Wolf of Saturn, than it would removing current alerts. As it is the alerts system is self sufficient and needs minimal upkeep, it could run essentially autonomously.

2. Will purchasable rewards have everything alerts offer all the time or a subset of the rewards (ala Baro's limited options at any one time)?
~ If the rewards are a subset, it seems it would not at all address the inability to get rewards, potentially making the window between them even longer.

3. How many missions will players need to do to achieve a typical reward (Aura, Potato, resource cluster) that a single alert offers now?
~ 1, 3, 10, 100?

4. How long will the "seasons" be for each rotation?
~ weekly, monthly, quarterly, whenever time allows an update?

5. How do you plan on addressing the need for constant lore updates?
~ Simaris had a similar goal when launched with the scanning tasks, yet keeping up on that lore was too much of a time intensive task, so it got scraped. However that was just a small story for each stage. The Wolf of Saturn seems as if it would need a larger story, a bunch of voice over work, the scripts to go with it and other potential additional work. The prime frame intros the team already seems to be struggling to achieve.

6. Is the plan going forward to make Sorties a similar system?
~ the system seems far more fitting for sorties on the whole than to replace alerts (random mercenary missions).

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Very cool system, wish you guys could do the same with Arbitratrions, the rewards on the Hexis vendor atm sucks. Would be cool to have better rewards and stuff to purchase with vitus essence like other mods and cosmetics.

Archgun Rivens are being added to the Arbiters to be bought with Vitus Essence.

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1: What are the challenges like, as someone who played Destiny Year 1, This system sounds a lot like the quests they had in that game and the faction reputation system.

The context is the issue with this system depends on how "hard/easy or how tedious these challenge is." Whereby you have to jump through artificial hoops to gain what you need. This can end up feeling a chore rather than "Fun-Factor/Narrative". An worse taking time away from the rest of the game (star chart for new players), farming something valuable (existing players). That system drastically increased player burn out cause you spend your entire gaming on doing these tasks, rather than you know playing the game/missions/whatever you want. An it kind of forces you to play if you want [insert x reward in the current rotation, if not evergreen]

2: In simple terms, is this change going to HELP or Hinder new players compared to the existing system. As for me those Aura Mods seem the most important.

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If that's how it is, it's really not a downgrade. There's a limited number of Alert Rewards that are available in any given period anyway. Instead of waiting a full month for the rewards you want to cycle around in Alerts, everything will be available in a month-long shop. If you're not interested in the cosmetics, you wouldn't be playing those Alerts in the first place, and you can just spend all your Wolf Creds on more Forma and Orokin Cells than you'd ever see in a month with the current system.

You nailed it. Just keep in mind, as mentioned in the OP, that the Alert rewards (asides from the evergreens listed) do rotate throughout the duration of the Series. So some planning and consideration on where to spend your Wolf Creds will come about.